Behind the scenes of 15 great discoveries

PEOPLE love stories, and they are incredibly powerful for conveying information. István Hargittai's intention in writing Drive and Curiosity is to narrow the gap between those who make scientific discoveries and everyone else. By telling the stories of 15 great discoveries he has chosen the perfect vehicle for his mission.

The book is full of the drama of the protagonists' lives: people who had to overcome poor education, political upheaval, unforgivable discrimination, professional jealousy and downright disbelief in their ideas. Some faced the destruction of their careers, stuck doggedly to an idea or followed a hunch to emerge triumphant.

Hargittai starts off with James Watson and the discovery of DNA's structure. Elsewhere he recounts Linus Pauling's work on the structure of proteins and Edward Teller's creation of the hydrogen bomb. So much has already been written about these people that there is little new to reveal.

The real value of this book is in telling the stories of less well-known pioneers. Gertrude Elion, for instance, who reached adulthood during the Great Depression, had to battle sexual discrimination and anti-Semitism before she could begin to create anti-cancer drugs. Alan MacDiarmid, in the face of dire warnings from colleagues, changed direction in his research. His perseverance paid off with a Nobel prize for creating conducting polymers.

Hargittai, a chemist, does not produce the slick prose of popular science writers. Indeed some of his facts, however interesting in themselves, are of questionable relevance to his stories. Nevertheless it all works.

His sources are impeccable: he met all but two of his subjects, interviewing most of them, and some are his friends. His list of discoveries sometimes reflects his eastern European roots, and is also refreshing and prophetic, as in the case of the chapter devoted to Dan Shechtman's discovery of quasicrystals in the early 1980s. Shechtman's claim was widely disbelieved, with Pauling as lead critic. Yet as I was reading the book Shechtman became the latest Nobel prizewinner in chemistry.

Book InformationDrive and Curiosity: What fuels the passion for scienceby István Hargittai
Published by: Prometheus
$26/£21.95